A Los Angeles-based nonprofit opened an early childhood center specifically for children whose families are seeking asylum in the United States. This center is one of the only places available where migrant children can play and learn for free.

The Duquesne Dukes are in Pittsburgh. The George Mason Patriots are in Fairfax, Va. The St. Bonaventure Bonnies are in Allegany, N.Y. The UMass Minutemen are in Amherst. The Fordham Rams are in the Bronx.

There are two other schools with Rams as mascot, plus Flyers, Colonials, Explorers, Spiders and Billikens (which, according to the Saint Louis University website, is a good-luck figure representing “things as they ought to be,” whatever that means).

The Mountain West might want to brush up on Atlantic 10 schools, though, because it likely will be playing them annually in men’s basketball.

Officially, the Mountain West says it is still weighing options for a crossover “challenge” series to replace the eight-year partnership with the Missouri Valley Conference that expires this season. But multiple sources told the Union-Tribune that the conference’s athletic directors already approved the move at meetings in Colorado Springs last week and details of a four-year deal starting in the 2020-21 season are merely being finalized.

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The vote was 10-1.

The lone nay?

You can make a pretty good guess based on former San Diego State coach Steve Fisher’s past tirades about the MW/MVC Challenge and current coach Brian Dutcher’s comments Tuesday at the conference media day in Las Vegas.

“For San Diego State, we don’t have trouble scheduling games,” Dutcher said. “I can get a Pac-12 team instead of playing an A-10 team, and I don’t have to travel three time zones to play them. Some teams in the conference that are in tough locations have a hard time getting someone to play them. For the conference, I can understand their point of view, that it’s good for some teams.

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“But for the Aztecs, it’s not a good thing. We can get our own games. We don’t need help.”

Several Mountain West coaches privately expressed concern about a new challenge series, particularly one that ships teams 2,000-plus miles for a single game they might lose. Several also said they were unaware their athletic director had voted in favor of it.

Still to be determined is how many teams will participate from each conference, since the Mountain West has 11 basketball members and the mathematically-challenged Atlantic 10 has 14. But Dan Butterly, the Mountain West’s senior associate commissioner, said “generally you’re going to put your best teams in the challenge and work from the top down.”

So the Aztecs might be stuck.

The closest trip from San Diego is 1,557 miles to Saint Louis. The A-10’s other 13 members are all in the Eastern time zone.

The reason for entering a challenge series with a conference even farther east than the Missouri Valley, or entering in one at all, is rooted in the Mountain West’s nonconference scheduling guidelines implemented in the last few years. Among the 10 recommendations is playing at least one game per season in the Central or Eastern time zone, where more high-level teams are located than in the West and where the conference can gain broader exposure.

The idea is to elevate your overall standing in the computer metrics that the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses to distribute at-large berths each March. Over the past three seasons, Missouri Valley teams had an average RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) of 107 out of 351 Division I men’s basketball programs; the A-10 average was 61.

Last season the A-10 was rated the 11th best conference nationally (the Mountain West was ninth), yet still sent three teams to the NCAA Tournament: St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island and Davidson. That’s the same number as the Pac-12 and equaled the American Athletic Conference for most among mid-major leagues.

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“This is a league like us,” Butterly said. “The Big Ten and ACC aren’t playing them (regularly in nonconference). They don’t want to lose NCAA Tournament bids, and we don’t want to lose bids. Ultimately, we have to determine what’s best for the league. If that means getting 10 more quality games, that helps the overall Mountain West, which helps San Diego State.”

Dutcher will take his chances without it.

Take their Dec. 1 game at an Illinois State team picked to win the Missouri Valley. To reach Normal, Ill., via commercial aviation, you fly to Chicago and then bus 2½ hours south (without traffic). That wipes out practice Friday. The game is Saturday, and Sunday is wiped out with the flight home. (A charter flight to Normal costs $82,000.)

That leaves them one or two days – depending whether they take their mandated day off on Monday – to prepare for a home game against a dangerous USD team.

Two years ago, the Aztecs played at Loyola Chicago and lost an afternoon game. They rushed to the airport and flew to Los Angeles, then bused to campus. Three days later, they played at Grand Canyon and lost again – sending the season into a spiral that ultimately broke a six-year streak of NCAA Tournament appearances.

On the opposite end is Boise State.

“I went kicking and screaming to go play at Creighton (in 2012) – like, why do we have to go here? – and we played the game of the year for us,” Broncos coach Leon Rice said of the 83-70 victory against then-No. 11 Blue Jays. “It was probably a big reason we got an at-large bid (to the NCAA Tournament).”

Last year, they hosted a Loyola Chicago team that would reach the Final Four and won by 34.

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